164 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



(the 17tli), Napoleon complains that the marshal had not united his 

 divisions. He says : " If the corps of D'Erlonand Reille had been 

 " together, not an Englishman would have escaped of the corps which 

 " attacked you." The despatch then goes on : " If Count D'Erlon 

 "had executed the movement on St. Amand which the emperor 

 " ordered, the Prussian army would have been totally destroyed, and 

 " we should have taken perhaps 30,000 prisoners." 



This incident of the turning aside of D'Erlon's column is one of 

 the enigmas of history. We have stated all that we have been able 

 to ascertain about it. We cannot accept any of the published expla- 

 nations as satisfactory ; and now the actors in the drama are dead, 

 there is no hope of any solution of the difficulty. 



Where did D'Erlon go when he left his proper line of march ? If 

 the commencement of the incident' was singular, its conclusion was 

 still more so. The new line of niarch of D'Erlon led him towards 

 Napoleon. The heads of his columns showed themselves in Napo- 

 leon's left rear about half-past five in the afternoon. They must 

 either have been longer on their cross-march than the length of the 

 march warranted, or they must have been very much later than eleven 

 o'clock in starting from Jumet. Whatever the truth may have been, 

 there is no doubt on one point : their arrival was unexpected. Nobody 

 knew who they were. Napoleon sent an aide-de-camp off at full gallop 

 to find out, and postponed a threatened attack on the Prussian centre 

 until the messenger should return. At half past six the aide-de camp 

 came back with the information that it was D'Erlon's cohimn, about 

 two miles from St. Amand, exactly where it was needed for Napoleon's 

 purpose. Charrassays: " Let the order be given. In an hour twenty 

 " thousand men of all arms will debouche on Wagnel^e, on Bry, rolling 

 " up in rear Bliicher's right wing on his centre, while he is assailed 

 " in front by Vandamme and Gerard, reinforced by the whole reserve. 

 " The plan conceived by Napoleon will be realized. There will not 

 " escape 20,000 Prussians. The order is not given, D'Erlon is not 

 " su.mmoned." But the fact seems to be, according to the best evi- 

 dence, that Napoleon did summon D'Erlon more than once, bxit that 

 Ney, at the same time, also repeatedly and urgently ordered D'Erlon 

 to return to him, being in the very throes of his struggle at Quati-e 

 Bras, and that D'Erlon thought it best to obey the marshal under 

 whose immediate command he had been placed, and not the 

 emperor. It seems, at first sight, unlikely that such should be the 



